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Published on Saturday, 28 July 2012 07:34

Written by Super User

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The Task-force report that recommended amendments to the CDF Act 2003 and CDF (Amendment) Act 2007 was officially presented to the Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 on the 26^th July 2012.

The Minister of State for Planning , National Development and Vision 2030 set up the above Task-force (vide Kenya Gazette Vol. CXI-No57) to critically examine the CDF Acts, its structures and aspects of its performance so far and recommend appropriate means to strengthen it. The Task force held countrywide sittings to collect and collate stakeholders’ views on the same.

However, before the report was officially presented, the new constitution came and was promulgated in August 2010. It then became necessary to review the report to determine if the recommendations therein were constituent with the new constitution. A number of other new changes resulting from the new constitution have been identified and documented.

In principal the CDF Act remains. The functions of the Constituencies Fund Committee will be reviewed in order to exclude duties that are executive in nature. The Board will report to the Minister on all matters and the CDF will summon the Minister on a need basis. The Fund will be part of the national allocation, (i.e. 85%). However, it is recommended that the amount be given to the county government as a conditional grant to be managed under a reviewed CDF structure with emphasis on the committee at the constituency where the Member of Parliament is a key player.  Its membership comprises the ward representatives to the county assembly and other members from the wards identified by the residents.

It is further proposed to have a new CDF county committee comprising the key leaders in the county, that is the Members of Parliament (National Assembly and Senate) and the Governor. The CDF Board will devolve from the national office to the county and have technical officers at the county and at each constituency. The CDFC will make all the decisions on the allocation of funds to various projects after receiving proposals from the wards then will oversee to make sure the funds are disbursed timely for the intended proposals. The actual implementation of projects will be by the Project Management Committee (PMC).   

Some of the Recommendations are;

·         CDF to remain under the central government function and therefore, the CDF ACT should be amended appropriately while ensuring that the principles of public finance as envisaged under Article 201 are fully observed.                                                               

·         Members of Parliament perform an oversight role over the fund but not its implementation and one way of doing so, is to have a technical committee to do the implementation of the fund. This would ensure separation of power thereto. There was no way a Member of Parliament could be delinked from the development activities in his constituency.

·         The CDF Act, should be amended to ensure that aspects such as procurement procedures, generation of projects, and their prioritizing, monitoring and evaluation and power devolved management system by the Board are properly anchored therein.

·            That the Act be amended to adopt the Fund to the County Governance structures

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